


Not For You

by softball45



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Funny, mama smoak - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-11-27
Packaged: 2018-02-21 23:51:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2486843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softball45/pseuds/softball45
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity's mother finally comes to town and by no means is Felicity ready to deal with the trouble her mom brings with her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my take on what happens when Mama Smoak comes to town. So far I really like what it has become and there is more to come. Let me know what you think.

Felicity had been ignoring calls from her mother for the past seven years.  It was no big deal, they hadn’t spoken since Felicity got on a plane to go to MIT, no texts, no emails, no letters, not even a Facebook message, and Felicity was fine with that but for some reason while walking to the foundry from a long day at the new QC she felt the need to answer her mom’s call. “Hey mom.”  She already regretted picking up the phone. But seeing how broken Laurel is without Sara, the anger and pain that clearly fueled her, seeing Oliver and Thea reunite a week ago; the look Oliver had in his eyes as he held Thea, the only family member he had left in the world; Felicity had never seen that look in his eyes.  For a moment it looked like Oliver had everything he wanted, he was whole.  By talking to her mom Felicity thought for a moment she would feel whole again, have a part of her old life back, but her mom was not the answer.

 

“Hey Lissy,” since Felicity was in grade school she had been trying to stop her mom from calling her that.  So far it hadn’t worked.  “I’m so thrilled you picked up,” Donna had a tendency to over exaggerate almost everything.  “How have you been? It’s been so long since we’ve talked. You know what I’m going to come out to Starling City and visit so we can catch up.”  The thought of her mother coming to town horrified Felicity. If her mom came to visit it meant she would weasel her way into every aspect of Felicity’s life. Her work life, her Arrow life, and especially her love life, which right now Felicity didn’t even want to think about since she just returned from Central City and things were moving pretty quickly with Barry.

 

“I don’t think now’s a good time; things are pretty hectic at work so I can’t-” Before Felicity had time to finish her argument she was cut off.

 

“Well…” Felicity began to open the door to Verdant standing in the middle of the empty dance floor tapping her stilettos impatiently stood the one and only Donna Smoak.  Panic rose in Felicity, “Lissy!”  A squeal emerged from the woman running in her direction.  Felicity froze, unknowing of how to confront her mom. “It’s been too long! I had to fly in to see my baby girl; you’ve grown up so much and this blonde! You’re finally taking after your mama. Those heels and that dress! Have you seen the way your ass looks in that dress? You finally brought out the sexuality you had buried deep down. I told you that computer nerd phase would be over soon enough.”  Donna was talking so fast Felicity couldn’t comprehend half of the insults that had been thrown her way.

 

Finally she was able to get a word in, “Mom what are you doing here?  How did you find me?” Almost no one knew that Oliver, Digg, Felicity and Roy still worked in the basement under Verdant. Only Laurel and now Thea knew.

 

“Well when a pretty girl gets promoted to be the CEO of a billionaire people tend to notice.”  Not this again.

 

“Oh me and Oliver aren’t a thing.” Felicity repeated that line once again.

 

“But that Ray Palmer.  He told me that you often head to this bar after work. Do you have two jobs servicing fine young men?”  This was not happening.

 

“Felicity?”  Looking past her mom Felicity saw three heads peering around the corner.

 

Immediately Felicity’s face turned bright red, “Oliver, John, Roy this is Donna.”

 

“You can call me Mama Smoak.” Gracefully Donna gave each of the guys a hug that was probably a second too long.  “Lissy, your taste in friends has changed dramatically. The friends you had in high school didn’t know how to handle a woman properly but now look at these _men_ they look like they could really take care of you and I don’t just mean financially I’m talking physically in the…”

 

“We all know what you’re talking about!” Felicity didn’t need to hear what her mom was about to say.  “Why don’t you head to my place, I have to get to work.”  Felicity had to physically shake Donna to get her attention. Instead of paying attention to her daughter Donna was eyeing Oliver, Roy and Digg.

 

“Lissy, it’s 7pm and you’re going to work at a bar? You sure are taking care of these fine young men.  I told you those pole-dancing classes were a way better gift than some stupid computer program. May I ask how much you’re charging? Because I could make a buck in this city.” Felicity had to push her mother out of Verdant.

 

“Felicity?”  All three of her friends stood with their jaws on the floor. It was clear none of these men knew how to proceed.

 

“I’m not going to repeat this so you better listen up. There’s a reason I never talk about her and you just found out why.  She talks way to much and has a dirty mind.”

 

“Kinda like you?”  A snarky comment from Roy got both Oliver and Digg to laugh. Felicity gave the men a glare that shut them up quickly.

 

As Felicity turned to go track down Merlyn Oliver called for her attention, “I just want to make it clear that what we do in this bar is not a paying job.”  Felicity used all of her strength to push Oliver because of that comment but he didn’t even budge.

 

Right now Felicity wanted to focus on tracking down this weeks bad guy and not focus on her mom but later she would have to find out the real reason Donna Smoak came to town because it sure wasn’t because she missed Felicity.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donna tells Felicity why she's in town but is it the truth?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the feedback I got from the first chapter. Just want to remind everyone with Donna Smoak coming to town this week my story does not follow everything that happens in the universe of Arrow. it takes place from episode 3x02. Just to give you reference point on what we knew as fans then. I hope you all enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Felicity dreaded the thought of having to go home and confront Donna.  But there were still questions that needed to be asked like why she flew 300 miles from Vegas to Starling.

 

After making as many stops as possible Felicity decided she better head home or Donna may wander into some things she shouldn’t such as Oliver’s old suit Felicity kept at her apartment for a just in case the new one rips sort of situation and it did look pretty awesome. She loved opening her closet in the morning and seeing the suit hanging down.  It reminded her of the good she did with the Arrow.

 

Before unlocking the door Felicity drew in a deep breath. She was beginning to panic. Trying to calm herself down Felicity began talking to herself, saying words of encouragement to herself, “C’mon Felicity she’s your mother there’s nothing to be afraid of. Stop being so worrisome you face life and death situations everyday.  Six months ago you had a sword held to your throat and you were in the grasp of a trained assassin.  You can face her.” Felicity’s breathing had evened out slightly.  And with one more relaxing breath she opened the door.

 

Smoke was all she could see, breathe, smell, taste and feel.  Everywhere there was smoke. Felicity knew the smell all too well from her days in college, burnt ramen.  Reaching for the fire extinguisher Felicity was able to quickly put out her mother’s mess, just like when she was a kid.  “I leave you alone for a few hours and you set my apartment on fire?”

 

“Lissy,” Donna said dejectedly, “I was trying to do something helpful like make you dinner.”

 

Felicity tried to control her emotions. “This isn’t dinner. This is something you eat when you have nothing.”

 

“But I used to make it for you all the time.” Donna’s voice was beginning to weaken.

 

“If you count leaving a cold half-eaten bowl out then yes you made it.”  Felicity remembered those countless nights with a cold soggy dinner. “Why are you suddenly trying to act like a good mother?  You never tried before, so why try now?”  The room went silent.  What Felicity said was true but she shouldn’t have said it.  She knew raising a child alone was tough for her mother and she shouldn’t hold things against her.  But, Felicity…she didn’t know how else to react.  All she ever felt towards her mom was hate, anger, and pain.  All she ever saw from her mom was hate, anger, and pain. All those years growing up she never saw her mom give a real, true smile. “Why don’t we sit down and catch up?” Felicity offered. Usually right now Felicity would be sitting at home, alone; watching a TV show and eating a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream.  She would much rather be doing that than talking with her mom.  But the things you do for family.

 

As soon as they got comfy on the couch Donna got down to business.  “I can’t believe you Lissy. I had to hear from the news that you got hired by a billionaire, two billionaires so how’d you move up that quickly?”  Not this topic again. Felicity’s place in the new and old QC had always been questioned.  She never forgot the headlines, _Oliver Queen, Playboy Again?, IT Girl Working Her Way Up Easily, Felicity Smoak, What’s Her Angle?._ She tried hard to block out all of the tabloids and articles concerning her job and for a while she was completely oblivious to the fact that people thought she was sleeping with Oliver.  Now her mom was questioning her motives?  This shouldn’t bother Felicity, it hadn’t before.  But it did. Those words shook Felicity more than they should have.

 

She didn’t know what her relationships with her bosses were. She never knew what was going on with Oliver.  He was always vague with how he felt and rarely let anyone in.  There was no telling where that relationship was going to go. And then there was Ray. For the past month Felicity had been working closely with Ray and wasn’t sure how she felt about him. “So are you going to give me the scoop on what’s going on with your love life or what?”  Donna tapped Felicity on her knee.  Her eyes were wide and eager.  Felicity hoped by staying quiet her mother might get the point and not continue to press Felicity for answers.

 

“You know there’s more to work than sleeping with your boss.  I happen to like my job and don’t need to have sex with someone to do my job correctly.” Felicity felt good about taking a stand against her mother.  Then things went downhill, “It has not escaped my attention that Ray and Oliver are good looking, even more than good looking.  But,” Felicity wanted to stop talking but her mouth would not stop pouring out words, “that’s not the point.  Oliver and I are adults and we are very capable of having an adult relationship.  We’re not going to get some kiss, no matter how good it was, get in the way of our work. However much of an idiot Oliver is being I know now is not a good time, for either one of us really. And.  Oh frack.”  Felicity babbled enough without being in an already uncomfortable situation. She had just talked more about how she felt in a minute than she had in the past three weeks.

 

When was this family reunion going to be over? “So are you and Oliver together? Because today I noticed you two couldn’t stop sneaking glances a each other.”

 

“Oh no, me and Oliver… Oliver and I… there’s… no… we’re not.” Felicity managed to stutter out. Donna looked questioningly at her. After a long awkward silence Felicity spoke again.  “So why are you really her? What do you want?” Her once stuttering, nervous voice was replaced by a serious determined one.

 

“The truth?”  Felicity scooted to the edged of the couch trying to hear the almost inaudible sound of her mother.  “I hit the jackpot on one of the slots.  I didn’t have anything else to spend it on so I decided I should come out and visit my baby girl.” Donna finished her story with a big smile that spread across her face from cheek to cheek.

 

“You’re lying.”  Felicity spoke without hesitation.  “In the past few years I learned to tell when people are lying. They tell you something you want to hear however, when people tell you the truth they tell you something you don’t want to hear.  Tell me. I’m not a kid anymore. You can’t keep everything bottled up because one day you’ll break.”  She urged her mom to tell the truth and let someone help.  Too many times has Felicity seen people break because of secrets. They destroy people. Secrets rip you apart until the only thing left are lies. 

 

“Once you know you can never go back,” Donna warned.

 

Breaking the tension there was a knock at the door. Great someone must’ve called the fire department for what happened earlier.  Felicity started talking before she reached the door, “Look it wasn’t a big deal.  No one got injured.” Looking up Felicity saw a man who was definitely not a fire fighter.  He was dressed in casual work clothes and had dark brown hair and wore a giant pair of glasses.  “Okay you are definitely not a fire fighter.  Where’s your hose?” The man chuckled. Felicity was now officially the worst at first impressions. 

 

“Felicity Smoak?”

 

“I’m sorry I don’t know you.  Who exactly are you?  And how do you know where I live.  I have pepper spray and I will use it.”

 

“I’m your father.” Felicity slammed the door shut.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for waiting patiently for this chapter. I'm sorry it took so long but enjoy! Let me know what you think.

Felicity had imagined all of her life what meeting her father would be like and there he was, standing on the other side of her door.  Felicity couldn’t believe it was real.  Slowly she opened the door again and exclaimed, “You’re my what?” 

 

Then she reacted how any normal person would react in a situation like this, and slammed the door shut again.

 

Storming back to the living room Felicity began to shout, “Is that possible?  Is it possible that he is standing right outside the door?”  She knew her mom had heard everything that had just transpired at the door.

 

Donna was turned away from Felicity and her head was slumped against her shoulders.  Without looking at Felicity she responded, “Yes.” 

 

Felicity didn’t know how to respond. All of her life she wanted to know where her father was, and now he was standing outside of her door wanting to meet her. She wanted to get as far away as possible.  “But, I did it to protect you, honey.  He doesn’t have the right to see you.  He left me when I needed him most, and I had to raise you on my own,” Donna had tears in her eyes and was pleading Felicity to understand.  Felicity gritted her teeth trying to hold back tears of her own, “You’re my baby, not his.”

 

That prompted Felicity toexplode, “It wasn’t your secret to keep!  Did you ever stop to think that I would want to see my father? All my life, I asked you about him and you would respond with was vague answers.  Then he shows up on my doorstep and suddenly you know everything about him!” 

 

Felicity was enraged.  How could her mom not tell her about this? She was done with her mother’s secrets. Felicity grabbed her jacket and headed for the door leaving her mom frozen in place, not knowing what to do.

 

Opening the door she pushed past the man who claimed to be her father and headed for the cold outdoors.  The cool fall air felt good against Felicity’s hot face. She was still worked up about what had happened inside her apartment.

 

Wandering aimlessly around the Glades, Felicity was able to relax slightly.  At this time of night in the Glades Felicity shouldn’t be relaxing.  She was in a dangerous place but she knew there was a guardian angel lurking around her.  After a moment of walking in silence, she called out for him, “Oliver, I know you’re out there.” 

 

With his head down and hood up Oliver emerged from the shadows.  Felicity sighed, “How long have you been listening?”  He kept his head down, eyes averting hergaze, “Great, just great.”

 

Felicity turned to walk to the foundry not caring if Oliver followed.  She watched ashis shadow followed her at a steady pace, a few feet behind her.  He spoke up after a while, “Felicity.  You should go back and try to fix things with your parents.”

 

She couldn’t believe what he was saying. Felicity turned around quickly and began her counter, “Really Oliver?  Because from what I’ve seen, you react the same when you’re pissed off, Digg, Laurel, your mom, everyone who has made Oliver Queen angry, has either gotten an arrow in the knee or has been walled up and thrown out of your life. Why can’t I do the same?” Felicity hadn’t realized she had moved closer to Oliver while she was talking, maybe it was him who had closed the distance between them.  She could feel his warm breath reach out across the skin on her neck.

 

“Because you’re a better person than I am, Felicity.” Oliver spoke almost inaudibly. If Felicity hadn’t been as close as she was, she never would have heard him.  “You always see the best in people when I can’t.  Why are you running away?  The Felicity I know would storm up there and not stop until she had figured this out.” His hand reached out for hers, and the cold leather comforted more than it should have. “You once told me you hate mysteries and they need to be solved so go solve this one; figure out who your father is.”

 

The air between her and Oliver was charged with tension,  “Can we head back to the foundry?  Merlyn’s still out there and I need to find him.”  Oliver opened his mouth to argue and then decided against it.  Even in the dark and with his hood covering most of his face, the concern on his face was noticeable.

 

“Fine, follow me.  My bike’s around the corner.”  Felicity groaned at the thought of riding Oliver’s bike.  She saw the way he liked to zip around the city on it.

 

“Can we take anything safer?  I don’t think two people can even fit on your bike.” She was trying to come up with as many excuses before getting on the dangerous beast in the alley before her.

 

Felicity gazed upon the bike, not wanting to step any closer. “Relax, I won’t let anything happen to you,” Oliver grabbed her by the handand dragged her to the bike.  He grabbed the helmet that was resting on the steering wheel and placed it on Felicity’s head, proceeding to ruin her hair, “This will keep you safe.”  She groaned again.  Felicity had never likedspeed much. When she would go to an amusement park she only went on the slow, safe rides, avoiding anything that was fast.

 

Oliver sat down, straddling the bike and motioned for her to do the same on the space behind him. “What about you? Where’s your helmet?”

 

“I’ll be fine, now sit behind me and hold on.” Felicity carefully threw one leg across the bike and eased her body close to his.

 

“What do I hold on to?”  She looked around for some place to put her hands.

 

“Me.”  At first Felicity was hesitant to wrap her arms around Oliver, but then he started the engine and her arms were like magnets to him.

 

She felt around, “Oliver did you add extra kevlar around your chest?  I don’t remember seeing that in the designs for the new suit.”  Moving her hands around more, Felicity realized there was no kevlar.

 

Oliver kicked off and they were instantly zooming through the city.  She locked her arms around his midsection and rested her head against his back leaving no room between them.  Oliver was keeping the speed relatively slow knowing by her grip that he was going fast enough.

 

Finally, after what felt like years, they arrived at the foundry.  Felicity opened her eyes for the first time since she got on the wretched bike. After a few seconds she finally relinquished her death grip around Oliver’s body.

 

“See that wasn’t so bad,” he said and she could hear the smirk in his voice.  Felicity disagreed.

 

“I am never doing that again. I’ve been in the hands of at least three people who wanted to kill me and that was by far the most frightening.” She took off the helmet and handed it back to Oliver forcefully.  Felicity shoved her hands into her jacket to try and get them to stop shaking.

 

Walking down the metal stairs, Oliver was on her heels, not missing a beat as she talked, “I set up an alert for Merlyn’s known locations.  If he returns to his home or Merlyn Global, even Thea’s place, we’ll know.”  Felicity headed for her chair and Oliver for the bathroom. When he emerged, he had changed out of the Arrow suit and into a gray t-shirt and black sweatpants.

 

He stood behind her for a minute and then spoke, “Merlyn can wait.  Your programs are running and we’ll know if something pops up.” He spun her chair around slowly as he leveled down to meet her eyes, “You should take some time and talk to your parents you can’t ignore them forever.

 

“I can and I will.  I need some time.  Just let me hide down here for a while.”  Felicity began typing away at her computers trying to find anything she could on Merlyn. Oliver left and headed for the salmon ladder. Felicity searched everywhere for Merlyn. No credit card purchases, no hotels, no parking tickets, and not even a log on to check his social media.

 

She was beyond frustrated with herself. It was Felicity’s job to track downthe bad guys,and Merlyn was the worst person alive right now.

 

“I don’t understand,” she heard, glancing up from her computers for the first time since she sat down, she sawOliver standing before her, covered from head to toe in sweat.  When she first started helping Oliver the sound of him working out, clanging metal against metal, hammering a tire and sparring with Digg annoyed her immensely. Now it was a soothing sound and she rarely noticed when there were other people in the room.  “You have this amazing gift of being able to track down people and hack into whatever database you want to.  Why, after all these years, did you never find your father?”

 

Oliver wasn’t wrong.  With the stroke of a few keys she could have easily found her father and tracked him down, “I never wanted to find him.  I saw how much he hurt my mother and I never wanted him to see how much damage he had caused.”  Felicity also felt like she _didn’t_ need to find her father.  For almost all of her life, she didn’t know her dad and she thought she could go the rest of her life with not knowing.

 

“Tonight he showed up at your doorstep wanting to talk and he won’t be leaving any time soon, so you should get intel on him.” She smiled at his words and he continued, “Just pretend he’s another target we’regoing after.”  Oliver walked behind Felicity and rested his hand on her shoulder.  “You’re family is more important.”  Then he walked away without another word.

 

Felicity thought about what Oliver had said. Sooner or later she would have to go back to her apartment and face her parents, she should at least have some knowledge going in on what he was like.

 

For the next hour Felicity searched for her father. Nothing came up. She tried ever piece of technology in her web arsenal; even Google, and there was nothing on him. It was if he really only had lived on in her dreams all of these years.  He never existed, he was a ghost.

 

Felicity shouted for Oliver, hoping he was somewhere within the vicinity of her voice, “Oliver, why would there be no record of someone ever existing?”

 

“He probably just didn’t want to be found. Felicity almost jumped from herseat.  She hadn’t realized how close Oliver had been standing to her. “But he could have also been in Witness Protection.  Maybe that’s why he left you and your mom, he didn’t have a choice.” Oliver’s theory was comforting. Maybe Felicity had spent her entire life despising a man who actually had cared about her and her mom. Maybe he left because he would have died if he had done otherwise.

 

Her brain was trying to process everything at once. Felicity closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to concentrate on one thing.  With Oliver still next to her, he said, “Head home.  You need some rest.”

 

Felicity spun around in her chair, “Not yet, I’m not even that tired.”  As she spoke her protest was drowned out by a yawn sneaking up on her.  She spoke before he could say ‘I told you so’, “Fine but I’m not riding that bike.”

 

“Don’t worry, I have a car out back.” She wanted to question how he was able to afford a bike and a car and nowhere to live, but now was not the time.

 

Felicity shut down her computers and started up the searches on her tablet.  There was no rest for computers, they worked 24/7, non-stop, finding things, creating new technology, saving lives.  Computers were incredibly smart and they didn’t have emotions; something Felicity often envied.

 

The car ride to her apartment was filled with silence. Felicity was too tired to talk and Oliver, well Oliver never talked when he didn’t have to. She didn’t even tell him where she lived but somehow he knew exactly what turns to make.

 

When they pulled up to her apartment building, Felicity noticed two figures standing outside. Great now they were soliciting outside of her building.  Felicity gave an audible groan.  To her surprise, Oliver exited the car as well. He opened her door and gave her shoulder a squeeze as her parents approached them.  “Mom you remember Oliver.”

 

“Nice to see you again Ms. Smoak.” Felicity was surprised the multitude of masks Oliver wore.  Apparently he also had one for meeting his IT girl’s parents.  He then looked over to her father, “You must be Felicity’s father. I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you.”  Oliver gritted through his teeth, clearly annoyed at the man standing before him. 

 

Felicity could see Oliver was positioning himself between her and her father, acting like he was trying to protect her from her dad. He then extended his hand out to shake and Felicity figured Oliver gave her dad his Bratva handshake, death grip and all.  “Nice to meet you.”  He then turned back towards Felicity, “I’ll see you tomorrow Felicity. Goodnight.”

 

“Night Oliver. Try and get some sleep.” She gave him a thankful glance and closed her eyes, not wanting to face the terror that stood before her. 

 

Her parents.


End file.
